Generally my projects last anywhere between a minute and a few hours. It’s a turnover that I’m used to, I sweep in, do my stuff in a melee of noise and excitement before moving on to the next job. Sometimes though it’s really lovely to commit to a long term project and work with some friendly faces to achieve a common goal.

This year I’ve been working with online retailer ao.com who commissioned me to shoot a new suite of images for their corporate image library. Based in Bolton, AO started in their first guise in 2000 and are still managed by their founder who started the company after a bet in a pub. Top man!

When I first left college I spent some time working on local papers in Newcastle and Stoke and have had a soft spot for the North ever since. Shooting in call centres and warehouses I generally stood out like a sore thumb, apparently my accent is ‘exotic’ when North of the Watford gap.

Arriving at the distribution hub I was greeted by the type of banter you’d expect when a bunch of no nonsense guys are confronted with the idea of a photoshoot. It turned out that they were great and humoured me by driving around tight country lanes in their lorry whilst I mused over locations. Sadly this did nothing for my image as a poncey London type.

A couple of months on and I find myself setting up a new kitchen at Alden Towers and I’m ready to make that call back up the M6 thankfully this time they won’t have a photographer coming along for the ride and demanding the scenic route.